How far does the impact of the films you have studied for this topic depend on distinctive uses of film techniques? City Of God

City of God

Within the film 'City of God' the impact of the film largely depends on distinctive uses of film techniques. A scene where this shown is where the character 'Lil Zé' and his gang offer the character 'Steak' to "take a walk with them" which 'Steak' a young character, accepts and goes to the favelas with them. This scene shows the dependence of uses of film techniques to create impact because the simple use of 'Steak' deciding to walk with 'Lil Zé' and his gang will effect him for the rest of his life. After this the scene instantly cuts to an establishing shot of the favelas which has a lot of impact upon the film as it shows part of the urban environment and how narrow the favelas are causing a verisimilitude feel as it shows the reality of being trapped in a poor area especially within the characters walking within the favela of the establishing shot which suggests the reality of them being stuck there. This then again cuts to an overshot of the characters of 'Lil Zé' with his gang including 'Steak', this overshot causes a big impact as it again shows how narrow it is while the characters of 'Lil Zé' and his gang have guns which again suggests the verisimilitude of being trapped theres no space to escape the reality they live in. Again the use of distinctive film techniques is depended upon to cause impact within the film by the use of a hand held camera which makes the scene feel real again for the verisimilitude effect, however the hand held camera while showing all the characters, the camera focus is vastly on the character 'Steak' which could suggest that he is effected in this scene by 'Lil Zé' and his gang which causes verisimilitude towards the character of 'Steak' to suggest whether his decision to walk with 'Lil Zé' will effect his life, this hand held camera and verisimilitude effect is then cut onto the 'runts' who are the young characters within the favela which also suggests that the reality of their life and how they are going to be effected within this scene, the characters which before this scene robbed an old mans store to which they ran away from which could focus on the karma and how their decisions may have consequences within their lives. Then this cuts back to 'Lil Zé' and his gang with 'Steak' tracking upwards on the characters which makes it seem as though all of these characters are important and have an impact within the scene including the 'runts' no matter how small their role is within the film, which suggests within the favelas and urban environment setting are all important leading to an immersion within the film of its environment and its characters of the favelas and other settings and adds verisimilitude that everyones life is important no matter how big or small they are in the world.